IaBRAHAM LINCOLN'S' 
RELIGION 



Madison C. Peters 




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COPYRIGHT DEPOSnV 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S RELIGION 



Abraham Lincoln's 
Religion 

MADISON C. PETERS 

Author of *' Justice to the JewT ^tc.y etc. 




BOSTON 
RICHARD G. BADGER 

The Gorham Press 
1909 



Copyright. 1909, by Richard G. Badge 



All rights reserved 



UBRARY of CONGRESS 

Two Copies Received 

JAN 22 1909 

Cop>rik.(it tntry ^ 



The Gotham Press Boston, USA 



CONTENTS 



I 
Lincoln the Man 1 

II 

Was x\braham Lincoln a Christian 15 

III 
Whv did Lincoln Never Join the Church . 39 



LINCOLN THE MAN 



Thou, too, sail on O Ship of State! 
Sail on, O Union, strong and great! 
Humanity with all its fears. 
With all its hopes of future years. 
Is hanging breathless on thy fate! 

We know what Master laid thy keel. 
What Workman wrought thy ribs of steel. 
Who made each mast and sail and rope. 
What anvils rang, what hammers beat. 
In tvhat a forge and what a heat 
Were shaped the anchors of thy hope! 

Fear not each sudden sound and shock: 
'Tis the wave, and not the rock, 
'Tis but the flapping of the sail, 
And not a rent made by the gale! 

In spite of rock and tempesfs roar. 
In spite of false lights on the shore. 
Sail on, nor fear to breast the sea! 
Our hearts, our hopes, are all with thee. 
Our hearts, our hopes, our prayers, our tears. 
Our faith triumphant o'er our fears. 
Are all with thee — are all with thee I 

Henry Wads worth Long f 'I loir 



LINCOLN THE MAN 

THE name of Abraham Lincoln is im- 
perishable, immortal; can never fade 
from the pages of history or grow dim 
with the lapse of time. 

Had this lowly born Kentucky boy 
been ushered into the world centuries 
ago in England, doubtless he would have 
become the father of a royal family, the 
founder of a kingly dynasty, the pioneer 
of a courtly line whose proudest boast 
would be to acclaim him their progenitor. 

Fortunately he belongs to modern time 
and sprang from the loins of a democratic 
race in a young and democratic country, 
around whose virgin brow he twined the 
garlands of a never-fading luster. 

His fame is America's, but his glory 
belongs to the world, and humanity is 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S RELIGION 

proud to honor him as one of the noblest 
among the sons of men. 

He founded no royal house to per- 
petuate his name on its escutcheon, yet 
no Caliph or Conqueror, no Emperor or 
Excellency, no Master or Monarch, no 
Prince or Potentate, no Prelate or Pontiff, 
no Saladin or Sultan has left behind a 
name so dear to the hearts of posterity 
as that of this plain man of the people, 
this champion of human rights, this friend 
of the down-trodden and oppressed, whose 
heart went out in sympathy and love to 
all mankind, irrespective of race or 
religion. 

No character in American history or, 
perhaps, in the world's history stands out 
so clearly silhouetted against the back- 
ground of time as Lincoln; none so free 
from defect or flaw, with no irregularities 
to mar its outlines, no inequalities to 
detract from its perfect formation; its 
every curve and section a symmetry of 
proportion. 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S RELIGION 

Born, February 12, 1809, as lowly 
as Jesus of Nazareth, in a one-room, 
shackling Kentucky cabin, the child of 
a poverty-stricken man, whom misfortune 
had seemingly chosen for her own, and 
whose ambitions were blighted and hopes 
almost dead, he conquered every environ- 
ment of an untoward fate, burst every link 
that bound him to the misery of his sur- 
roundings, and came forth in invincible 
majesty to write his name in letters of 
adamant on the walls of Fame. 

Reared in gripping, grinding, pinching 
penury and pallid poverty, amid the most 
squalid destitution possible to conceive, 
successively a choreboy, common laborer, 
rail-splitter, river pilot, and country store- 
keeper, he made his way through trials 
and difficulties that would have over- 
whelmed the bravest spirit; broke down 
every barrier, turned all obstacles into 
stepping-stones to progress, until he en- 
tered the arena of public life as a lawyer, 
commanding the confidence and respect 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S RELIGION 

of all who knew him and the terrible odds 
he had to fight against to win out in the 
battle of life. 

Practically an unknown man when 
nominated for the Presidency, his election 
due to factional strife among his op- 
ponents, the people of America when 
approaching the greatest crisis in their 
history, turned as if by chance, and 
Providence that chance did guide, to this 
comparatively obscure man of the prairies, 
and with one bound he took his place 
with the w^orld's greatest statesmen, the 
leader of his party, the real ruler of a 
mighty nation. 

Led as it were by an Unseen Hand to 
the front, he solved problems that stag- 
gered the wisest minds of the nation, 
directed military campaigns, and con- 
ducted diplomatic relations with such 
skill as to astonish the most astute states- 
men, cabinet ministers, and army gen- 
erals. The rail-splitter of the Sangamon 
had become at the supreme moment the 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S RELIGION 

man of destiny to whom the nation looked 
in the most crucial period it had yet 
encountered. 

Such a man is not an accident, — he is 
more than a circumstance. He is sent 
upon a mission and bears his credentials 
from a Higher Power than that of earth, — 
there is a purpose and a plan in his ex- 
istence, the latter is mapped out, the 
former must be fulfilled. 

In view of the fact that Lincoln had 
barely a year's schooling, where and how 
did he acquire his profound wisdom and 
his depth of knowledge ? 

That he was a God-ordained man, 
raised up to accomplish a divine design, 
few, who have closely studied the charac- 
ter and work of the man, will gainsay. 

As the early prophets were inspired by 
God to utter golden words of divine wis- 
dom, so Lincoln was inspired from the 
same source to speak and act in con- 
formity to divine intention. The key- 
note of this idea is forcibly struck by 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S RELIGION 

Henry Watterson, when he writes : " And 
a thousand years hence, no tragedy, 
no drama, no epic poem will be filled 
with greater wonder, or be followed 
by mankind with deeper feelings, than 
that which tells the story of his life and 
death." 

Lincoln was a Providential man, — of 
that there can be little question, but every 
man has it in his power to be Providen- 
tial also, though not in the same way, by 
being the deliverer of a race and the 
saviour of a nation, but by living up to 
the promptings of his better nature and 
seizing the opportunities God sends his 
way. Any man can thus be Providential 
in the full length and breadth and sweep 
of his life. 

Next to Washington, Lincoln stands 
out the most colossal figure in American 
history, and is pre-eminent to Washing- 
ton in the affection with which his mem- 
ory is enshrined in the hearts of his coun- 
trymen; though Washington, as the Father 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S RELIGION 

of his Country, must always be given the 
more exalted place. 

Washington gave us a country; Lin- 
coln preserved it; Washington wrote the 
first page of our history; Lincoln was 
called upon to write another, and at a 
period which covers the most momentous 
crisis the country had witnessed since 
Liberty Bell proclaimed the birth of a 
separate and independent nation. He 
wrote the page and he kept it clean, 
though to do so he had to wash it in rivers 
of human blood, the warm heart's blood 
too of the countrymen he loved, but he 
would have willingly washed it in his own 
also, had the sacrifice been necessary. 
Alas! Lincoln's blood was shed in the 
end, not on the altar of his country, but by 
the hand of an assassin; not for the 
glory of the flag, but for the sorrow of 
the nation. 

More, perhaps, has been written con- 
cerning the illustrious martyr President 
than of any other national character, and 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S RELTCTON 

nearly nil of tljis writing has been eulogy 
approacliing almost to deification. We 
liav(^ <'Mslirine(l Lirieoln in a l^mtheon of 
(jllory, all by himself, for the jjraise and 
emulation of future ages, just as we have 
placed Benedict Arnold and Aaron Burr 
in a Pillory of Shame to be held uf> for 
th(^ scorn, execration, and auathema of 
all time. 

'I'hc beatification of Lincoln, especially 
by Northerners, is due, in a great measure, 
to his devotion and loyalty to the cause 
of the Unir)n. U'he issue of the war was 
to itmalgamate the contending parties 
into ;i uniliecl whole under one flag, but 
Lincoln was not to see the full fruition 
of his niighty work, the final triumph of 
his policy. The hand of the assassin fell 
uj)on him just at the very zenith of his 
fame, the meridian of his greatness, a time 
when public sentiment was at the })oiling- 
point. He had struck the shackles from the 
limbs of four millions of people, brought 
order out of chaos, planted the banners of 

8 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S RELIGION 

victory on the broken ramparts of defeat, 
and had done it in such a way that the 
vanquished almost fancied themselves 
the conquerors, and willingly, proudly, 
saluted the flag of a cemented Fatherland. 

He had brought together the warring 
elements into a splendid and invincible 
Union; he had become the idol of his 
people as Washington had once been; 
he had been hailed as the Messiah of the 
slave and the Saviour of the oppressed, 
and then, in a moment, his great light 
was extinguished in the gloom and dark- 
ness of universal sorrow. With all that 
he had accomplished, nevertheless, he 
went down to the grave, like another 
Columbus, unconscious of the great work 
he had consummated. 

His Emancipation Proclamation not 
only melted the manacles of the slaves by 
its electric touch, but it freed the whole 
nation from the bondage of years. Free 
speech had been suppressed, men dared 
not utter their convictions, the pulpit 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S RELIGION 

had been overawed, the press had been 
shackled, we were being reproached by 
the nations of the earth for violating the 
first principles of freedom by holding 
men in bondage. Europe was in trans- 
ports of laughter at a country proclaiming 
human liberty, while clinging to all the 
traditions of slavery, and her risible 
faculties were really excusable in face of 
such a paradox. Lincoln keenly felt the 
sneers and taunts, and in the indignation 
of his mighty manhood he arose and freed 
the nation from its incubus of shame. 
He made its soil too hot forthe feet of 
slaves; he unshackled the pulpit; he 
unmuzzled the press; he removed the 
dark blots from the national honor, and 
united and free he placed his country 
greatest among the nations of the earth. 

The immortal Proclamation linked his 
name with the rights of man, the cause 
of personal liberty, and the progress of 
humanity. This is why Lincoln is en- 
throned on so high a pedestal; this is 

10 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S RELIGION 

why the great War President is enshrined 
in the heart of hearts of his countrymen. 

Some are of the opinion, that had the 
illustrious Tribune been spared, his plans 
of Reconstruction would have antagonized 
the best men of his party, and instead of 
coming down to posterity as the most 
revered and popular President, after 
Washington, he would have left his name 
in our annals as probably that of the most 
unpopular Executive we have had. But 
such surmise is a piece of far-fetched 
anticipation very remotely removed from 
the boundary of probability. Lincoln 
would not have antagonized, he would 
have converted and brought men to the 
same viewpoint as himself. 

As it is, he towers so majestically above 
our horizon, that in his great and com- 
manding national role, we are apt to 
quite forget his character as an individual, 
his personality as a man and what it 
represented in the domain of private life. 

That Lincoln was a man of strong 

11 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S RELIGION 

character and tenacious purpose, rather 
than brilliant and intellectual, is a point 
conceded by all who have studied him 
in the calm of impartiality and in no 
sense indulged in hero worship. Despite 
the claim of his divine mission, his great- 
ness was service in loyalty to an ideal and 
it was subordination of the personal self 
to his ideals rather than any extraordinary 
gifts with which nature had endowed him, 
which gives glory to him and the men 
who stood with him. 

He has been contrasted with Napoleon, 
whose star was just sinking below the 
horizon as his was ascending above it, 
but it is rather invidious to contrast two 
so widely divergent actors on the stage of 
fame. The difference between them is 
the difference between the iron heel and 
the helping hand, between tyranny and 
freedom, between a man living for self 
and glory, and a man living for the 
broadest kind of cosmopolitanism and 
the widest type of humanitarianism. 

12 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S RELIGION 

Lincoln's whole career is a manifes- 
tation of his absolute integrity of pur- 
pose, of his fearless honesty in all things, 
of his considerate feeling for others, of 
his profound respect for conscience, and 
his reverential fear of God. 



13 



WAS ABRAHAM LINCOLN A 
CHRISTIAN ? 



God give us men! A time like this demands 
Clean minds, pure hearts, true faith, and ready 

hands. 
Men who possess opinions and a willy- 
Men whom desire for office does not kill; 
Men whom the spoils of office cannot buy; 
Men who have honor; men who will not lie; 
Tall men; sun-crowned men; men who will live 

above the fog 
In public duty and in private thinking; 
Men who can stand before a demagogue 
And denounce his treacherous flatteries, and with- 
out winking. 
For a ivhile base tricksters with their wornout 

creeds. 
Their large professions, and their little deeds. 
Wrangle in selfish strife, lo! Freedom weeps. 
Wrong rules the land and waiting Justice sleeps. 

— J. G. Holland 



II 

WAS ABRAHAM LINCOLN A CHRISTIAN ? 

IN regard to his religious views, Lincoln 
was always exceedingly reticent, but 
this reserve gives but greater force to the 
striking proof of the deep faith professed 
in his proclamations and public addresses, 
and that his life was actuated by high 
religious principles. He was too broad, 
too big brained, to care for doctrinal 
beliefs or sectarian differences. 

His mother and father were Free- Will 
Baptists in Kentucky. In Indiana they 
became members of what was then known 
as the Predestinarian church, not from 
any change in belief, but because it was 
the only denomination in the neighbor- 
hood. When Thomas Lincoln removed 
to Illinois he united with the Christian 

17 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S RELIGION 

church, commonly known as ** Camp- 
bellites," and in that faith he died. 

In his early days Lincoln had little 
opportunity for the practice of religion, 
and his parents, though religious enough 
in themselves, as has just been pointed 
out, took little trouble to inculcate its 
precepts on his youthful mind. The 
charge has been brought against him that 
he was an agnostic, but this arose from 
the fact that when a young man at Salem, 
in 1834, he prepared a review of Thomas 
Paine's " Age of Reason " and Volney's 
'* Ruins of Empires," with a view to 
reading it before a literary society that 
had been organized in the neighborhood. 
A friend of his — Sam Hill — burned the 
manuscript, which made the young man 
very indignant, as he had spent much 
time in its preparation. He had, to an 
extent, indorsed the views of these deistic 
writers, and their works had made a deep 
impression on him, but he came to realize 
their specious sophistries at their true 

18 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S RELIGION 

value and turned away from them with 
feelings of strong aversion, so that he 
thanked Sam Hill for the service he had 
done him in destroying the manuscripts of 
approval and thus turning his thoughts 
in the right direction which led him to 
see the evils of infidel teachings. 

He never was an unbeliever, and as he 
advanced in years his religious conceptions 
deepened and his faith and reliance on 
the Divine Power strengthened with 
time. 

In common with those reared under 
similar circumstances in rural localities 
he was highly superstitious, and this 
superstition he was never able to shake 
off in after life, though to offset it and 
counteract the morbid influence it ex- 
erted over him he had recourse to humor 
and tried to look on the bright side of 
everything, often on the ludicrous side, 
and gave such free rein to his inclination 
in this direction that he gained for himself 
something of the reputation of a humorist 

19 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S RELIGION 

and wag, but in reality his love for 
jesting and telling humorous stories came 
to him as a second nature, an inheritance 
from his father, who was renowned in his 
section for droll sayings, funny anecdotes, 
and striking illustrations. 

He was also somewhat interested in 
spiritualism, but as the occult art of com- 
municating with the denizens of the un- 
seen world had not attained such a degree 
of perfection in his day as in ours, his 
opportunity for investigation was limited 
to a few seances given by peripatetic 
mediums, which, however, instead of in- 
creasing his faith in intercommunication 
with the manes of the departed, only 
excited his disgust for the fakirs who laid 
claim to the power of summoning spirits 
to mortal presence. 

All his life Lincoln was a man who 
thought for himself; he would not allow 
the opinions of others to obtrude them- 
selves on him, he investigated for himself, 
and his intellectual honesty would not 

20 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S RELIGION 

permit him to make pretense to faith or 
simulate what he did not feel. 

Some writers would have us believe 
that he was not a Christian at all, in fact, 
was an out and out infidel of the stripe 
of Voltaire and Paine; but we have seen 
what gave rise to this misconception of 
his character and caused it to gain circula- 
tion. The works of Paine and Volney 
were the only books of an infidel tendency 
that he ever read, and when he saw his 
error he tried to disabuse his mind of 
their teachings as quickly as possible. 

To get at a right consideration of his 
religious beliefs, we must go back to 
those early days in the life of the future 
statesman after the family had removed 
from Kentucky to Indiana. It was a wild 
place in which his boyhood was spent; 
the primeval American wood which was 
only beginning to hear the voice of a 
crude civilization, and had not, as yet, 
heard the sound of a church bell. There 
were no places of worship; there were no 

21 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S RELIGION 

schools or even stores or shops ; in truth, 
so isolated and primitive was the location 
of the Lincoln camp that the necessities 
of life were many miles removed from it. 
His father, Thomas Lincoln, though 
a good man in a general way, was but an 
indifiPerent parent, and consequently a 
poor guide or mentor for the youth. The 
poor man had received many hard knocks 
from the iron hand of misfortune and had 
become almost wholly disheartened, which 
led to carelessness and thriftlessness, 
and besides, he was illiterate and unpol- 
ished. It could not be expected that a 
man thus handicapped himself could give 
his boy good training, either morally or 
intellectually. The mother, too, had been 
ground down by poverty to such a degree 
as to lose almost all interest in life; her 
burden soon became too heavy to bear, 
and she had to lay it down before coming 
to the middle milestone of life. It is not 
to be wondered that, under such circum- 
stances and amid such surroundings, the 

22 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S RELIGION 

boy Abraham grew up after the manner 
of a wild, strong weed, following the bent 
of his own rugged nature. 

It was a dark time and the Lincolns 
were in dark struggles. Their abode 
at first was a rude hut, a mere shed of 
rough poles, open to the suns of summer 
and the snows of winter. Even when a 
cabin was at length erected, there were 
neither doors nor windows in it. The 
beds were composed of dried leaves and 
their coverings of the skins of wild ani- 
mals. Food was scarce and of the 
coarsest kind and had to be brought 
from a long distance. In after years 
Lincoln never cared to refer to this period 
in his career. 

In 1818, when Abraham was nine 
years old, his mother died and was buried 
in a cleared space a little beyond the 
cabin, without any religious ceremonies 
or observances whatever. However, there 
was a service held over the grave some 
months afterwards by an itinerant 

23 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S RELIGION 

preacher who came at the request of 
young Abraham. The prayers that Par- 
son Elkin said above the mound of 
Nancy Hanks were the first pubHc prayers 
to which Abraham Lincoln listened. 

After a time Thomas Lincoln went 
back to Kentucky, and shortly returned 
with a new wife, Sally Bush Johnson, 
widow of the jailer of Hardin County. 
She had three children, and these, with 
the Lincoln household, which included 
two Hanks boys, kin of the late Mrs. 
Lincoln, formed a somewhat heterogene- 
ous family. 

They were, however, extremely domes- 
tic and tenderly attached to one another, 
which is very seldom the case in mixed 
households, but they w^ere all of the same 
class, born and reared under similar 
circumstances. 

The two branches even united in 
religion and joined the little church a few 
miles distant, which had as the seat of 
worship a small frame building lately 

24 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S RELIGION 

erected inthat region. Young Abraham, 
however, did not aflSliate and follow the 
example of his kin. He had to work 
hard, and religion at this time seemed to 
give him little concern, for, as before 
observed, he had little opportunity to 
cultivate it had he desired to do so. At 
an early age he was cast upon the bitter- 
ness of the world, and in the sweat of his 
brow had he to earn his daily bread. With 
him the stern battle of life began early; 
he had to gird on his sword for the combat 
at an age when the cares and shadows 
of the world are in the far perspective 
of the future and the sunshine of happi- 
ness illumines the morning of life with 
its brightest rays. 

The specter of poverty was at his side; 
he could not get away from it; his only 
hope to exorcise it from his presence lay 
in unremitting toil, constant endeavor to 
overcome its influence on his career, and 
with this end in view he sternly resolved 
to do all that hard work, patience, and 

25 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S RELIGION 

perseverance demanded to free himself 
from its sinister companionship. 

The story of his thirst for knowledge 
and the limited means at his disposal for 
assuaging it need scarcely be repeated, 
for it is a pathetic story familiar to 
almost all, and becomes hackneyed with 
repetition. 

In August, 1831, at the age of twenty- 
two, being satisfied that he had fully dis- 
charged any debt which he owed his 
father for such rearing and opportunities 
as he had received, he left the parent 
cabin, and, as it turned out, forever. 
Deep down in his soul he had resolved to 
make himself something better and higher 
than his father was or ever could hope 
to be. From this stage onwards his 
career is a matter of national history; the 
man is almost lost sight of in the states- 
man, and his private life is submerged 
in the public eminence to which he at- 
tained. 

We must, however, deal with those 

26 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S RELIGION 

phases of his boyhood and young man- 
hood which bear a relation and lead up 
to the illustrious heights he was destined 
to gain as the ruler of a nation and the 
emancipator of a race. 

We have said that most people believe 
that Lincoln was a Providential man, was 
called of God to be the preserver of a 
nation and the deliverer of the slave, and 
this really seems to be the explanation 
which accounts for the singular success 
of his unparalleled career; otherwise, how 
could this backswoods youth, rough, 
uncouth, little educated, reach the greatest 
eminence possible for an American; how 
could he have climbed the heights of 
fame until he arrived at the culminating 
pinnacle; how could he have become 
the recipient of the greatest and grandest 
honors his countrymen had in their power 
to confer upon him ? 

His accomplishments surely prove be- 
yond question that this obscure, lowly 
born man was the chosen instrument of 

^7 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S RELIGION 

a Divine Wisdom, raised up to fulfill the 
designs of an all-wise Providence in 
freeing a race from bondage, just as 
Moses was raised up to lead ' the chosen 
people ' from the land of their captivity. 

Despite his early training, or rather 
lack of training, regardless of his seeming 
early indifference to religion, and all for 
which it stood, Abraham Lincoln was on 
all occasions and at all times not only 
a good Christian and sincere believer, 
but a man of the deepest religious senti- 
ments, imbued with a strong faith and 
earnest allegiance to moral principles; a 
man who all through life had the utmost 
dependence upon and reliance in divine 
guidance, and who undertook nothing 
without invoking God's assistance to 
enable him to determine what was right 
from what was wrong. Unwavering trust 
in the Almighty was the keynote to his 
success and the foundation stone of his 
greatness. 

Let us pause to consider what really 

28 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S RELIGION 

were the religious convictions of this 
wonderful man. 

That he was a true and sincere Chris- 
tian, in fact, if not in form, is fully proved 
by many extracts from his letters and 
numerous addresses ; his public utterances 
more than verify his belief in the inter- 
vention of a Supreme Power in the affairs 
of men. 

Apart from this, however, we have 
explicit testimony of the sincerity of his 
convictions of the truth of religion by 
the fact that he was a faithful attendant 
on divine service. For four years in 
Washington he attended Dr. Gurley's 
Presbyterian church, and such attendance 
is certainly conclusive that he was in 
form, as well as in fact, a believing Chris- 
tian. 

That he attended church merely for 
the sake of appearance is not tenable, 
for his nature was too open and honest to 
do that which was not based upon sincere 
conviction. 

29 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S RELIGION 

His reply to the negroes of Baltimore 
who, in 1864, presented him with a beauti- 
ful Bible, confirms his belief in the divine 
inspiration of God's word as revealed 
in the Holy Scriptures. On the occasion 
of this Bible presentation he said: *' This 
great Book is the best gift God has given 
to man; all the good from the Saviour of 
the world is communicated through this 
Book." 

He was an habitual reader of the Bible, 
more familiar with its contents than most 
ministers. His familiarity with its pages 
is shown in his literary style and in the 
frequent quotations from it with which 
his writings are interspersed. He once 
wrote his early friend, Joshua Speed, — 
" I am profitably engaged reading the 
Bible. Take all of this Book upon reason 
that you can and the balance upon faith 
and you will live and die a better man." 

To deny that he was a believer is to 
accuse him of hypocrisy and double 
deahng, an accusation which is made 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S RELIGION 

more emphatic in view of his regular 
church attendance and the fervent re- 
ligious sentiments which characterized 
his public acceptance of the teachings 
of Christianity. 

When he left his home at Springfield, 
with a full appreciation of the grave 
responsibility devolving upon him, in 
bidding farewell to the Christian com- 
munity in which he had lived for more 
than a quarter of a century, he gave ex- 
pression to his sentiments in this pathetic 
valedictory : " I now leave, not knowing 
when, or whether ever, I may return, with 
a task before me greater than that which 
rested upon Washington. With the as- 
sistance of that Divine Being who ever 
attended him I cannot fail. Trusting in 
Him who can go with me and remain 
with you and be everywhere for good, let 
us confidently hope that all will yet be 
well. To His care commending you, as I 
hope in your prayers you will commend 
me, I bid you an affectionate farewell." 

31 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S RELIGION 

Such language does not sound much 
like that of an unbeliever, but on the 
contrary is pregnant with faith and hope 
in the guidance and watchfulness of a 
Supreme Being. 

When requested to preside at a meeting 
of the Christian Commission in Washing- 
ton, held February 22, 1863, he replied, 
" The birthday of Washington and the 
Christian Sabbath coinciding this year, 
and suggesting together the highest in- 
terests of this life, and of that to come, is 
most propitious for the meeting proposed." 

In the February of the preceding year 
Lincoln was visited by a severe affliction 
in the death of his beloved son, Willie, 
to whom he was much attached, and by 
the extreme illness of another son, Thomas, 
famiharly called " Tad." This was 
a new burden and a heavy one, but 
through his firm faith in Providence he 
regarded the double visitation as direct 
from God, accepting the otherwise in- 
explicable affliction as a manifestation 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S RELIGION 

of the divine design in regard to himself. 
A devout Christian lady from Massa- 
chusetts, who was officiating in one of 
the hospitals at the time, came to attend 
the sick children. She reports that the 
President watched with her about the 
bedside of the sick ones, and that he often 
walked the room, saying sadly, *' This 
is the hardest trial of my life, — why is it, 
why is it .^ " In the course of conversa- 
tion with this nurse, he closely questioned 
her concerning her situation; she told 
him that she was a widow, and that her 
husband and two children were in heaven, 
and added, that she saw the hand of God 
in it all, and that she never loved Him so 
much before as she had since her affliction. 

" How is that brought about ?'' he 
inquired. 

" Simply by trusting in God and feeling 
that He does all things well," she replied. 

'* Did you submit fully under the first 
loss ? " Lincoln again inquired. 

"No!" she answered, "not wholly, 

as 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S RELIGION 

but as blow came upon blow, and all 
were taken, I could and did submit and 
was very happy." 

" I am glad to hear you say that," said 
the President, pathetically, " your ex- 
perience will help me to bear my afflic- 
tion." 

On the morning of his boy's funeral, 
when assured that many Christians were 
praying for him, the tears welled in his 
eyes as he faltered out to his comforter, 
*' I am glad to hear that, I want them to 
pray for me, I need their prayers." 
When the nurse came forward to express 
her sympathy, the President thanked her 
and said, " I will try to go to God with my 
sorrows." A few days afterwards she 
asked him if he could trust God, and he 
answered, " I think I can and I will try." 
Continuing, he expressed himself more 
fully, " I wish I had that childlike 
faith you speak of and I trust He will 
give it to me." Then he went on to 
speak of his mother who, so many years 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S RELIGION 

before, had been laid to rest in the lonely 
Indiana clearing; the memory of her who 
had pillowed his head on her bosom 
came back to him with the tenderest 
recollections. Though, as has been 
stated, she had little time or opportunity 
to teach him the principles of her own 
simple faith and reverence, she did not 
wholly neglect him. She taught him a 
few short prayers and pious precepts, and 
these he never forgot in the after time. 
" I remember her prayers," said he, 
'' and they have followed me; they have 
clung to me all my life." 

Some think that it was Sally Bush 
Johnson to whom he here refers, who 
was a good and religious woman, but 
there can be little doubt that the allusion 
is to his own mother, for whose early 
death he sorrowed deeply and whom he 
recalled to memory many a time, though 
he was but a lad when she passed away. 

Many a time Lincoln sought the prayers 
of others, which proves that he believed 

35 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S RELIGION 

in the efficacy of appealing to heaven 
when in doubt and difficulties. Bishop 
Simpson often called upon him, and on 
these occasions they would talk as 
brothers. On parting the President 
would say, '" Bishop, don't leave without 
prayer." The doors would then be locked 
and the two great men, as little children, 
would unite their petitions. 

General Daniel E. Sickles puts on 
record a remarkable interview with Lin- 
coln, in which the latter expressed himself 
as follows: " When Lee crossed the 
Potomac and entered Pennsylvania, fol- 
lowed by our army, I felt that the crisis 
had come. I knew that defeat in a great 
battle on Northern soil involved the loss 
of Washington, to be followed, perhaps, 
by the intervention of England or France 
in favor of the Southern Confederacy. 
I went to my room and got down on my 
knees in prayer. I felt that I must put 
all my trust in Almighty God. He gave 
to our people the best country ever given 

36 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S RELIGION 

to man. He alone could save it from 
destruction. I had tried my best to do 
my duty and found myself unequal to the 
task. The burden was more than I 
could bear. God had been often our 
Protector in other days. I prayed Him 
to help us and give us victory now. I 
felt that my prayer was answered. I 
knew that God was on our side. I had 
no misgivings about the result of Gettys- 
burg." 

" How do you feel about Vicksburg, 
Mr. President ? " asked General Sickles. 

" Grant will pull through all right," 
returned Lincoln, '* I am sure of it; I have 
been despondent, but am so no longer. 
God is with us." 

Rising from his seat, the President took 
Sickles by the hand, and continued, 
'' Sickles, I am told, as you have been 
told, perhaps, that your condition is 
serious. I am in a prophetic mood to-day. 
You will get well." 

Do not such sentiments as these show 

37 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S RELIGION 

conclusively his faith in divine power and 
his utter dependence upon God ? 

To express such deep feelings of re- 
ligious principles did not necessitate his 
being a sectarian or even an attendant at 
church. 

Yet we know Lincoln did attend church. 
We have already mentioned that he went 
regularly to Dr. Gurley's Presbyterian 
church in Washington, but he was a reg- 
ular worshiper long before he came to 
Washington. When in Springfield he 
was an attendant of the First Presby- 
terian Church, of which the Rev. Dr. James 
Smith was pastor. This clergyman aided 
Lincoln, who had then begun the practice 
of law, in an investigation into the claims 
of the Bible. The future President at 
that time made a frank acknowledgment 
of his belief that the Bible is an authorita- 
tive revelation of God. 



38 



WHY DID LINCOLN NEVER JOIN 
A CHURCH? 



Give us men! 
Men from every rank. 
Fresh and free and frank. 
Men of thought and reading. 
Men of light and leading. 
Men of loyal breeding. 
National welfare speeding. 
Men of faith and not of faction, 
Men of lofty aim in action — 
Give us men! — / say again 

Give us men! 

Give us men! 
Strong and stalwart ones, 
Men whom highest hope inspires. 
Men w)hom purest honor fires. 
Men who trample self beneath them 
Men who make their country wreathe them. 

As her noble sons. 

Worthy of their sires. 
Men who never shame their mothers. 
Men who never fail their brothers, 
True, however false are others — 
Give us men! — I say again 

Give us men! 



Give us men! 
Men who, when the tempest gathers. 
Grasp the standard of their fathers 

In the thickest fight. 
Men who strike for homes and altar, 
{Let the coward cringe and falter — 

God defend the Right). 
True as truth, though lorn and lonely, 
Tender as the brave are only — 
Men who tread where saints have trod, 
Men for Country, Right, and God — 
Give us men! — / say again, again 

Give us men! 

— Bishop of Exeter 



Ill 

WHY DID LINCOLN NEVER JOIN A CHURCH ? 

THAT Lincoln did not join a church is 
no reason for inferring that he was 
not a believer in Christianity. It was just 
the opposite in his case, — as the years 
passed his convictions and faith became 
stronger. 

The warring creeds of Christianity 
looked to him like so many soldiers of the 
same army disagreeing among themselves 
as to the best way to win a battle. Lin- 
coln would win in any way he could, 
and would look on that way as the best. 
In his day, even more than in ours, 
ministers fell out with one another touch- 
ing the meaning of the Bible, and then, 
as always, weakened its influence and 
their own upon the public mind. Preach- 
ers and teachers even now devote their 

43 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S RELIGION 

time to useless discussions which will 
never benefit any one, and to the inves- 
tigation of controverted points in theo- 
logy, deciding principles of interpretation 
and attacking chronological difficulties 
that have no more connection with win- 
ning men to right living than the battle of 
Lexington has with the reformation of 
drunkards. 

The precious time that Lincoln saw 
wasted, the energies misspent, and the 
intellectual antagonisms begotten, which 
then, as now, divided the hearts of men, 
caused him to reject dogmas which were 
considered essential to salvation by the 
denominations of his day. They moved, 
as alas! too many of them still do, in 
the old rut of orthodox tradition, steeped 
in human creeds and almost incapable 
of an original idea. 

Lincoln preferred new truths to old 
falsehoods, and, like Christ, was out of 
sympathy with men who swallowed dog- 
mas whole and produced only pious 

44 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S RELIGION 

platitudes. This very thing to-day ac- 
counts for the fact that so many bnlhant 
men and interesting women are uncon- 
nected with the churches and therefore 
unreached by the pulpits. Everywhere 
in increasingly large numbers, we find 
men, energetic, learned, and refined, 
humane, generous, reverent, open to 
argument and spiritual persuasion, moral 
men with religious sensibilities, who often 
set a worthy example to professors 
themselves, the very choicest spirits in 
the community, not identified with any 
church, but whose lives, we all must 
admit, are as much and often more 
Christian than those of professed church- 
goers. 

Mere water, whether a person is 
" buried in it," or whether it is applied at 
the tips of a bishop's fingers, makes no 
change whatever in character. Faith in 
relio'ion as an institution is faith in a 
machine,— its application is what tells. 
When a member of Congress, knowing 

45 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S RELIGION 

Lincoln's religious character, asked him 
why he did not join some church, he 
replied: *' Because I find diflficulty with- 
out mental reservation in giving my 
assent to their long and complicated 
creeds. When any church inscribes on 
its altar, as a qualification for member- 
ship, the Saviour's statement of the sub- 
stance of the law and the Gospel, — 
' Thou slialt love the Lord thy God with 
all thy heart and with all thy soul and 
with all thy mind . . , and thy neighbor 
as thyself ' — that church will I join with 
all my heart and soul." 

John G. Nicolay, who probably was 
better acquainted with Lincoln and more 
closely attached to him than any one 
outside his own family and near relatives, 
writes: " I do not remember ever having 
discussed religion with Mr. Lincoln, nor 
do I know of any authorized statement 
of his views in existence. He some- 
times talked freely, and never made any 
concealment of his belief or .unbelief in 

40 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S RELIGION 

any dogma or doctrine, but never pro- 
voked religious controversies. I speak 
more from his disposition and habits 
than from any positive declaration on 
his part. He frequently made remarks 
about sermons he had heard, books he 
had read, or doctrines that had been 
advanced, and my opinion as to his re- 
ligious belief is based upon such casual 
evidence. There is not the slightest 
doubt that he believed in a Supreme 
Being of omnipotent power and omni- 
scient watchfulness over the children of 
men, and that this great Being could be 
reached by prayer. Mr. Lincoln was a 
praying man; I know that to be a fact. 
And I have heard him request people to 
pray for him, which he would not have 
done had he not believed that prayer is 
answered. Many a time have I heard Mr. 
Lincoln ask ministers and Christian wo- 
men to pray for him, and he did not do 
this for effect. He was no hypocrite, and 
had such reverence for sacred things that 

47 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S RELIGION 

he would not trifle with them. I have 
heard him say that he prayed for this or 
that, and remember one occasion on 
which he remarked that if a certain thing 
did not occur he would lose his faith in 
prayer. 

" It is a matter of history that he told 
the Cabinet he had promised his Maker 
to issue an Emancipation Proclamation, 
and it was not an idle remark. At the 
same time he did not believe in some of 
the dogmas of the orthodox churches. I 
have heard him argue against the doctrine 
of atonement, for instance. He con- 
sidered it illogical and unjust and a 
premium upon evil-doing if a man who 
had been wicked all his life could make up 
for it by a few words or prayers at the 
hour of death; and he had no faith in 
death-bed repentances. He did not be- 
lieve in several other articles of the creeds 
of the orthodox churches. He believed 
in the Bible, however. . . . He used to 
consider it the greatest of all text-books of 

48 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S RELIGION 

morals and ethics and that there was noth- 
ing to compare with it in Hterature. . . . 

" It would be difficult for any one to 
define Mr. Lincoln's position or to classify 
him among the sects. I should say that 
he believed in a good many articles in 
the creeds of the orthodox churches and 
rejected a good many that did not appeal 
to his reason. 

*' He praised the simplicity of the 
Gospels. He often declared that the 
Sermon on the Mount contained the 
essence of all law and justice, and that 
the Lord's Prayer was the sublimest 
composition in human language. He 
was a constant reader of the Bible, but 
had no sympathy with theology, and 
often said that in matters affecting a 
man's relations with his Maker he couldn't 
give a power of attorney. 

** Yes, there is a story, and it is prob- 
ably true, that when he was very young 
and very ignorant he wrote an essay that 
might be called atheistical. It was after 

49 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S RELIGION 

he had been reading a couple of atheistic 
books which made a great impression on 
his mind, and the essay is supposed to 
have expressed his views on those books, — 
a sort of review of them, containing both 
approval and disapproval, — and one of 
his friends burned it. He was very 
indignant at the time, but was afterwards 
glad of it. 

" The opposition of the Springfield 
clergy to his election was chiefly due to 
remarks he made about them. One 
careless remark, I remember, was widely 
quoted. An eminent clergyman was de- 
livering a series of doctrinal discourses 
that attracted considerable local atten- 
tion. Although Lincoln was frequently 
invited, he would not be induced to attend 
them. He remarked that he wouldn't 

trust Brother to construe the statutes 

of Illinois and much less the laws of God; 
that people who knew him wouldn't trust 
his advice on an ordinary business trans- 
action because they didn't consider him 

50 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S RELIGION 

competent; hence he didn't see why they 
did so in the most important of all human 
affairs, the salvation of their souls. 

*' These remarks were quoted widely 
and misrepresented, to Lincoln's injury. 
In those days people were not so liberal 
asl^now, and any one who criticized a 
parson was considered a sceptic." 

An orthodox believer Lincoln may not 
have been, in fact was not, but he was 
better,— he had the spirit of Christ which 
manifests itself more peculiarly in actions 
than in words. Love to God and man was 
his creed, the world was his church, kindly 
words and merciful deeds his sermons. 

In a certain formal sense the baptized 
man or woman is a Christian, just as all 
foreigners who have been naturalized are 
Americans before the law, but the simple 
act of naturalization will not make any 
man a good American. There is a vast 
difference between naturalizing a man 
and nationalizing him. He is an Ameri- 
can who is an American at heart, who 

51 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S RELIGION 

owes but one allegiance, is loyal to but 
one country, and is true to but one flag, 
whose sympathies and choices, whose 
heroic labors and sacrifices in behalf of 
his country make him deserve the peerless 
name of American. 

So the mere act of baptism or church 
membership gives a man but a poor title 
to the Christian name. Paul said, the 
man was not a Jew who was only one 
outwardly, that the mere rite of cir- 
cumcision was nothing, that the true Jew 
was one inwardly and at heart. If Paul 
could thus express himself as to the quali- 
fications which characterized a member 
of the Jewish church, which was avowedly 
a ritualistic organization, it must be safe 
to say the same thing about those who 
profess a belief in the Christian church, 
which differed from the Jewish, mainly 
in caring less for rites and more for 
rightness. 

Faith has its fundamental place in the 
plan of salvation, but faith, according to 

52 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S RELIGION 

some people's understanding of it, is a 
vivid perception of, or rather a sub- 
scription to truth as the church fathers, 
or, more likely the church grandmothers, 
defined it. Faith, in this sense of the 
word, makes nobody a Christian. The 
devils believe and tremble. 

It is of great importance to rightly 
believe the truth which relates to Christ 
and His kingdom, but the most unhesi- 
tating assent of the intellect to the most 
orthodox creeds, catechisms, commen- 
taries, and systems ever framed will make 
no man a Christian. An upright and 
down square life is worth more than a 
whole ton of tall talk. 

The grandest profession of religion is 
a life all devoted to glorifying Christ, by 
living in obedience to His commands, and 
thus making the world a little less ac- 
cursed and more worthy of God. 

A man may be a member of the most 
orthodox church in Christendom, he may 
sit at all the communions for a lifetime, 

53 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S RELIGION 

but if he be mean and selfish and careless 
of the world's condition, he is no Christian. 
While, on the other hand, a man may, 
like Abraham Lincoln, have peculiarities 
of religious beliefs, and yet if he spend 
his whole life for others, as Lincoln did, 
then he is so much like Christ, emulating 
His example so well that he has good claim 
to be called a Christian. 

" Blest is the man whose softening heart 

Feels all another's pain, 
To whom the supplicating eye 

Was never raised in vain ; 
Whose breast expands with generous 
warmth, 

A stranger's woes to feel, 
And bleeds in pity o'er the wound 

He wants the power to heal; 
To gentle offices of love 

His feet are never slow — 
He views through Mercy's melting eye 

A brother in a foe." 

Abraham Lincoln never joined a 
church, because the creeds of his day and 

54 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S RELIGION 

of his community were too inclusive of 
detail in doctrine and exacting in their 
ritual and terminology. He had no sym- 
pathy with theologians. He frequently 
declared that it was blasphemy for a 
preacher to " twist the words of Chnst 
around, so as to sustain his own doctrme 
and confirm his own private views," and 
he often remarked that "the more a 
man knew of theology, the further he got 
away from the spirit of Christ." 

Many preachers in the past have been 
strong factors in the march of civilization, 
but courageous preachers have always 
been scarce. As a rule, they have been 
more conservators of the past than 
moulders of the future, clinging with grim 
tenacity to the traditions and teachmgs 
of the early fathers. 

Among the Church of England preach- 
ers in Virginia, while nearly all opposed 
separation from the mother country, 
there were few so militant as the famous 
John Peter Muhlenberg, who, from his 
55 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S RELIGION 

pulpit at Woodstock, Virginia, declared: 
" There is a time for all things, a time to 
preach and a time to pray, but there is 
also a time to fight, and that time has now 
come," and suiting the action to the word, 
threw off his gown, disclosing a uniform 
beneath, and followed by three hundred 
men of his congregation, marched to join 
Washington's forces. 

In Colonial times in New England, the 
pulpit occupied a more general sphere 
and exerted more general influence than 
to-day. Ministers preached that the 
Hebrew Commonwealth was the model 
for the new Republic, and so strenuously 
that as an effect our government assumed 
that form which prevailed among the 
Hebrews under the judges and had the 
divine sanction. 

In the agitation of the slave question, 
as a class, the preachers were mostly 
silent. Had they roused themselves to 
the defence of right, they could have 
created a public sentiment towards the 

56 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S RELIGION 

inhuman and shameless traiffie which 
would have destroyed slavery without 
the necessity of a civil war in which tens 
of thousands of lives were sacrificed and 
millions of money were lost. 

Theodore Parker, Bishop Simpson, 
Albert Barnes, E. H. Chapin, Rabbis 
Sabato Morais and David Einhorn, and 
above all, Henry Ward Beecher, consti- 
tuted the few conspicuous examples of 
the preachers who came out strongly for 
abolition, but the stand these great men 
took was effective, and once the die was 
cast, practically all the preachers became 
leaders in the movement for emancipation. 

The attitude of Lincoln on slavery was 
not determined by churchmen. Lincoln 
made a wide distinction between church- 
men and Christians. Christianity is un- 
selfish service born of love; churchianity 
is often a form without a God, a wearing 
of religion as a cloak and not as an armor, 
— it never obeys a command unless it 
is too feeble to resist, and in many cases, 

57 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S RELIGION 

is a perfidy and treason against the law of 
Christ. 

In Springfield, when Lincoln found 
that twenty of the twenty-three ministers 
of the different denominations and the 
majority of the members of the principal 
churches were arrayed against him in his 
Presidential campaign, he drew forth from 
his pocket a New Testament, saying to 
some friends present: ** I have carefully 
read the Bible and I do not so understand 
this book. These men well know that I 
am for freedom in the territories, freedom 
everywhere, as free as the Constitution 
and laws will permit, and that my op- 
ponents are for slavery. They know this 
and yet, with this book in their hands, in 
the light of which human bondage cannot 
live a moment, they are going to vote 
against me. I know that Liberty is 
right, for Christ teaches it and Christ is 
God. I shall be vindicated and these 
men will find that they have not read 
their Bible aright." 

d8 



ABRAHAM LINCOI.N'S RELIGION 

Despite the great abolition preachers 
and those who followed their example, 
some of the churches in Lincoln's time 
made a choice of public favor and sided 
with slavery, though, as has been stated, 
the majority of the ministers were strongly 
moved to follow in the lead of their dis- 
tinguished brethren who had unfurled 
the flag of freedom, yet withal the church 
did not exert sufficient force to make her- 
self a power in determining the issue. 
At this time the opportunity was afforded 
her of moulding public sentiment, and it 
may be readily inferred that had she pos- 
sessed the solid Christianity of Abraham 
Lincoln the terrible war could have been 
averted and the country kept from being 
plunged in blood and gloom, but in this, 
the greatest of all crises, the church failed 
to do her duty as she should have done, 
and as a result, the bloodiest war of 
history devastated and almost desolated 
the land. Of course, once the war was de- 
clared the church stood solidly behind the 
59 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S RELIGION 

President, but she had no other alternative 
compatible with reason and common 
sense, not to speak of patriotism. At 
length the preachers recognized the man- 
ner of man the country had in its great 
leader, and so they looked to him for 
counsel and for guidance. Lincoln was 
practically demonstrating that his religion 
was as good as theirs, and they, in turn, 
were now trying to make their religion as 
good as Lincoln's. 

All along the Christianity of Lincoln 
had the true ring in it. It was of that 
type beautifully described in these lines : 

" Creeds and confessions, high church or the 
low 
I cannot say; but you would vastly please us 
If some pointed scripture you would show 

To which of these belonged the Saviour, Jesus. 
I think to all or none. Not curious creeds, 

Or ordered forms of church rule He taught, 
But love of soul that blossomed into deeds 
With human good and human blessings 
fraught. 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S RELIGION 

On me nor priest nor presbyter nor pope, 
Bishop nor dean may stamp a party name, 

But Jesus with His largely human scope 
The service of my human life may claim; 

Let prideful priests do battle about creeds — 

The church is mine that does most charitable 
deeds." 

There was not a day, nay, not an hour 
of Lincoln's life but was devoted to some 
good work, some act of charity, some 
message of consolation or comfort or 
mercy to the miserable and the suffering; 
in short, Abraham Lincoln carried his 
religion into daily life; it accompanied 
him everywhere and on all occasions. 

Every phase of his character was a 
demonstration of the Golden Rule. From 
boyhood to manhood, from manhood to 
fame, honesty was his distinguishing 
trait. As a lawyer all his transactions 
were above suspicion. He would not 
take a case to which there could possibly 
be attached any stain of falsehood or foul- 
dealing. To a man who once offered him 

61 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S RELIGION 

a case of which he could not approve, 
he gave this explanation, quoted by his 
partner, Herndon, who vouches for it: 
" There is no reasonable doubt that I can 
gain your case for you. I can set a whole 
neighborhood at loggerheads, I can dis- 
tress a widowed mother and her six 
fatherless children, and thereby get you 
$600, which rightly belongs, as it ap- 
pears to me, as much to them as it 
does to you. I shall not take your case, 
but I will give you a little advice for 
nothing, — you seem to be a splendid, 
energetic man, — I would advise you to 
try your hand at making $600 in some 
other way." 

Here is an example of how he brought 
his religion into politics. When he was 
in the legislature and the caucus sought 
to get him into schemes that were not 
creditable, in a discussion which lasted 
until midnight, contending that the end 
would justify the means, Lincoln closed 
the debate and defined his own position 

62 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S RELIGION 

by saying, '' You may burn my body to 
ashes and scatter them to the four 
winds of heaven; you may drag my soul 
down to the regions of darkness and 
despair, to be tormented forever, but you 
will not get me to support a measure 
which I believe to be wrong." 

Judged alone by his actions Lincoln 
was a Christian of the very highest type; 
his principles were founded upon the 
teachings of the Master. He was gentle, 
kind, loving, thoughtful, tender, his big 
heart overflowed at the sight of suffering 
and he alleviated it when he could. His 
sympathies went out to the poor in their 
afflictions. He tempered the harshness 
and severity of the great war by words 
of comfort and acts of mercy. He denied 
himself at the White House to no one, the 
poorest woman being as courteously re- 
ceived as the most distinguished states- 
man. On one occasion a heartbroken 
mother came to plead for the life of an 
only son who had forfeited it by some 

63 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S RELIGION 

breach of discipline in the ranks. She 
was sent away rejoicing. Turning to her 
male companion on leaving the White 
House she indignantly exclaimed: " You 
said the President was an ugly man, — 
why, he's the handsomest man I have 
ever seen." 

Both by act and word did Lincoln try 
to emulate the Man of Galilee. Indeed 
few, if any, of the w^orld's leaders followed 
so closely the precepts and example of the 
Saviour. He adopted the Golden Rule 
as his standard of conduct and lived up 
to it in every particular. He acted on 
"the square" to every man, so that he 
gained for himself the soubriquet of 
" Honest Abe," which was fondly applied 
to him all through his public career. He 
was just in his dealings with his fellow-men 
and never once was guilty of deception. 

If the character of this man is to be 
estimated by the words of Jesus Himself, 
** By their fruits ye shall know them," 
then Abraham Lincoln was one of the 

64 



ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S RELIGION 

highest types of Christian gentleman that 
ever trod the earth. 

During the four terrible years of the 
war he carried the sorrows of the people 
on his own shoulders and displayed the 
true qualities of a noble man and a 
Christian. He placed himself at this 
time absolutely in the hands of a higher 
power. Hear him make this confession: 
'* I should be the most presumptuous 
blockhead upon this footstool, if I for one 
day thought that I could discharge the 
duties which have come upon me since I 
came into this place without the aid and 
enlightenment of One who is stronger and 
wiser than all others." 

The light of Holy Writ was the beacon 
star that guided him through the darkness 
of trying days; not alone were the Holy 
Scriptures a guide for his actions, but they 
served as a model for his literary style. 
His education was defective, yet at times 
few of the great masters of literature could 
equal him in purity of language. High 

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ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S RELIGION 

critics declare his second inaugural ad- 
dress to be one of the greatest master- 
pieces of English prose. Here are a few 
of the closing sentences: " Fondly do we 
hope, fervently do we pray that the mighty 
scourge of war may pass away, yet if 
God wills that it continue until all the 
wealth piled by the bondsman's two 
hundred and fifty years of unrequited 
toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of 
blood drawn by the lash shall be paid 
by another drawn by the sword, as was 
said three thousand years ago, so still it 
must be said, ' the judgments of the Lord 
are true and righteous altogether.' With 
malice towards none, with charity for all, 
with firmness in the right, let us strive 
on to finish the work we are in, to bind up 
the nation's wounds, to care for him who 
shall have borne the battle, and for his 
widow and his orphan, to do all which 
may achieve and cherish a just and 
lasting peace among ourselves and with 
all nations." 

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ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S RELIGION 

Apart from the beauty and diction of 
the language there is a deep spirit of 
faith and dependence on God breathed 
throughout the whole of the address. 

Surely the most sceptical must be con- 
vinced of the sincerity of Lincoln's re- 
ligious belief from his words, from his 
actions, from his principles, from his 
prayers, from his confessions, in a word, 
from the rectitude of his life, and admit 
that he was, not only a fervent believer, 
but a practical Christian of the best kind, 
though he knelt at no denominational altar. 

Such was our Lincoln. With wonder 
and admiration we stand in his presence 
and feel the magnetism that attracts us 
to the man. His goodness constituted his 
greatness. 

As the world brings its frankincense 
of praise to offer as an incense at his 
shrine, in him men can see such an em- 
bodiment of true and glorious manhood 
that to him can fittingly be applied the 
word picture of Shakespeare's ideal: 

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ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S RELIGION 

" The qualities are so blended in him 
that all the world can stand up and say, 
Here is a man'' 

A little doctor of divinity in a large 
Baptist convention stood on a step and 
thanked God he was a Baptist. The 
audience could hear him but not see him, 
so some one shouted, *' Get up higher." 
*' I can't," replied the minister, " to be 
a Baptist is as high as I can get." He 
was mistaken, — there is something higher 
than being a Baptist or any other kind 
of an enthusiastic sectarian, and that is 
being a man. It is quite possible to 
be a churchman higher than the highest 
steeple and yet not have the affections 
which cluster around the throne of glory 
and find their nutriment in the bosom 
of God. 

Lincoln's religion was that of character, 
the greatest force in the universe. He 
gave us a life by which to know him, a 
life overflowing with good works, full of 
that seriousness which comes from seeing 

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ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S RELIGION 

and dealing with eternal realities, a con- 
tinuous exhibit of unselfishness. 

The pure and unblemished character 
of this man, his integrity of deed, his 
honesty of purpose, his faith in God have 
given him an everlasting place in the 
affections of the people, and the example 
which he has left behind nerves the heart 
and strengthens the arm and inspires the 
courage of others to emulate him and fol- 
low in his footsteps. No higher or better 
type can be placed before American youth 
as an exemplar and spur for ambition. 

He is not a Christian who, however 
orthodox in his beliefs, has not love and 
devotion, self-sacrifice and honesty, truth- 
fulness and manliness. 

No power is like character, — this was 
the power which Abraham Lincoln pos- 
sessed and which carried with it the 
blessing of God, gaining for him the 
attachment of a continent and the per- 
sonal love and loyalty of the Anglo-Saxon 
race. 

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ABRAHAM LINCOLN'S RELIGION 

We may truthfully describe this man, 
whose greatness was his goodness, as 
Tennyson describes one of his heroes: 
he was 

"Rich in saving commonsense, 
And as the greatest only are — 
In his simplicity sublime; 
Who never sold the truth to serve the hour, 
Nor paltered with eternal God for power; 
Whose life was work, whose language rife 
With rugged maxims hewn from life; 
Who never spake against a foe. 
Let his great example stand 
Colossal, seen in every land, 
Till in all lands and through all human story. 
The path of duty be the way to glory." 



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